Normal haemeostasis is the result of a complex balance between the process of clot initiation, formation and clot dissolution. The complex interactions between blood cells, specific plasma proteins and the vascular surface, maintain the fluidity of blood unless injury and blood loss occurs (EP-A-987274). Many significant disease states are related to abnormal haemostasis. For example, local thrombus formation due to rupture of atheroslerotic plaque is a major cause of acute myocardial infarction and unstable agina. Treatment of an occlusive coronary thrombus by either thrombolytic therapy or percutaneous angioplasty may be accompanied by acute thrombolytic reclosure of the affected vessel.
There continues to be a need for safe and effective therapeutic anticoagulants to limit or prevent thrombus formation. It is most desirable to develop agents that inhibit coagulation without directly inhibiting thrombin but by inhibiting other steps in the coagulation cascade like factor Xa and/or factor VIIa activity. It is now believed that inhibitors of factor Xa carry a lower bleeding risk than thrombin inhibitors (A. E. P. Adang & J. B. M. Rewinkel, Drugs of the Future 2000, 25, 369-383).
Low molecular weight, factor Xa-specific blood clotting inhibitors that are effective but do not cause unwanted side effects have been described, for example, in WO-A-95/29189. However, besides being an effective factor Xa-specific blood clotting inhibitor, it is desirable that such inhibitors also have further advantageous properties, for instance stability in plasma and liver and selectivity versus other serine proteases whose inhibition is not intended, such as thrombin. There is an ongoing need for further low molecular weight factor Xa specific blood clotting inhibitors which are effective and have the above advantages as well.
Specific inhibition of the factor VIIa/tissue factor catalytic complex using monoclonal antibodies (WO-A-92/06711) or a protein such as chloromethyl ketone inactivated factor VIIa (WO-A-96/12800, WO-A-97/47651) is an extremely effective means of controlling thrombus formation caused by acute arterial injury or the thrombotic complications related to bacterial septicemia. There is also experimental evidence suggesting that inhibition of factor VIIa/tissue factor activity inhibits restenosis following balloon angioplasty. Bleeding studies have been conducted in baboons and indicate that inhibition of the factor VIIa/tissue factor complex has the widest safety window with respect to therapeutic effectiveness and bleeding risk of any anticoagulant approach tested including thrombin, platelet and factor Xa inhibition. Certain inhibitors of factor VIIa have already been described. EP-A-987274, for example discloses compounds containing a tripeptide unit which inhibit factor VIIa. However, the property profile of these compounds is still not ideal, and there is an ongoing need for further low molecular weight factor VIIa inhibitory blood clotting inhibitors.
The present invention satisfies the above needs by providing novel compounds of the formula I which exhibit factor Xa and/or factor VIIa inhibitory activity and are favorable agents for inhibiting unwanted blood clotting and thrombus formation.